


Chasing for a Legacy

by rosaquesalz



Series: Miss Rodriguez and Detective Carisi [2]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Heavy Angst, Interracial Relationship, Long Lost/Secret Relatives, M/M, Opposites Attract, Past Rape/Non-con, Racism, Rape Recovery, Smut, Unplanned Pregnancy, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-10 00:16:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17415323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosaquesalz/pseuds/rosaquesalz
Summary: Anissa Rodriguez-Barba is an attorney new to the Manhattan DA's office and to SVU. As the daughter of a Dominican immigrant, single mother, she doesn't have much of a reputation or a name. While trying her hardest to keep up with her peers, and while dueling a particularly annoying detective, she discovers life-changing-and life-ruining secrets.





	Chasing for a Legacy

There was a soft rattle coming from the window of the small studio apartment, now barren of all furniture and décor, looking identical to when she moved in. That stupid rattle was there when she moved in three years ago, she never got around to fixing it, and never got around to learning how to fix said rattle. For a few moments she just stood there, box in her hands as she looked around at the barren broom-closet of an apartment. All her furniture had already been set up in her new apartment, thanks to her cousins, Sebastian and Nick’s help, all that was left was to decorate everything, and to get used to sleeping without worrying about how to stay safe during the night. Everything was falling into place, slowly but surely. They told her this new building had security guards, and that everyone had to sign in, the days of sleeping with a knife on her nightstand, just in case anyone got in, were over.

Her feet led her backwards and out the door of the apartment, there was nothing stopping her now. Now, she had a chance to start over, new job, new apartment, a new life. As she shut the door and backed up to leave, she hit something hard and warm. “Oh!” A soft gasp escaped her throat and she whipped around to see what she hit.

It was her cousin, Nick, well her friend, more like it. They weren’t really related by blood, but they were close family-friends. “You okay, Anissa?” His voice was calming to her, pulling her out of her head and back to reality as smoothly as possible. He offered her a soft smile, holding his arms out.

“I’m okay, promise.” Anissa nodded, setting the box down and hugging him tightly. “Thanks for helping me while you’re on vacation, Nick.”

“Hey, anything for my new-lawyer-cousin.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead before picking up the box and walking towards the elevator. Anissa trailed behind him, taking her time to say goodbye to her apartment. It wasn’t that she was sad to go or anything, her apartment was the worst, but she was taking her time to say goodbye to the rest of her childhood. Now that she had a job at the DA’s office, she had to be an adult. The only problem was that she had no fucking clue how to do so. “You said you’re gonna work cases for SVU? Like with Peter Stone and stuff?” Nick asked when she landed in the elevator, she nodded her head softly, leaning against the elevator. “Liv will love you, Anissa. You’ll be like a daughter to her.”

Anissa chuckled softly, messing with a stray curl that had escaped the confines of her bun. “How’s California?” It had been a few years since she had seen Nick due to him moving out to California after getting shot. Needless to say, she missed him a lot.

“It’s good, Zara is doing well, so is Gil.” He bobbed his head, looking down into the open box to see her new nameplate tucked under a folder. Nick moved it, reading her name “ADA Anissa Rodriguez-Barba. You’re gonna make us proud, kid.”

“Thanks,” Anissa tucked the stray curl behind her ear, looking down at her sneakers. “That’s the plan.” Her tank top clung tightly to her back, probably because of all the sweating she had been doing lately, cons of moving out of the Bronx and into Manhattan, not that the Bronx was all bad, but where she lived, it was. Thanks to Nick and Sebastian, she didn’t have to live there anymore, and she also didn’t have to move all by herself.

Tomorrow would be her first day at work, and she was going to meet the SVU squad, and more importantly start her mission of living up to her mother’s expectations.

\-------------

This did not meet her mother’s expectations.

She liked yellow, but, a yellow suit? What was she thinking, ordering a pantsuit online? Of course, they sent her the wrong color. The rest of her pantsuits were at the dry-cleaners, this was the only thing she could wear unless she decided to wear a skirt, and she did _not_ want to wear a skirt. She only hoped that Peter wasn’t going to yell at her for wearing such a bright color on the first day of work.

At the moment, she was sitting in her and Peter’s now-shared office, setting up her desk with all the supplies she needed, and a photo of her with her mother and grandparents at her quince.

“Ah, you must be Ms. Rodriguez-Barba,” A voice came from the door, she looked over to see Peter standing at the doorway and holding a case file in his hand. “I’m Peter Stone, your new partner.”

\----------

Anissa walked into Liv’s office, following closely behind Peter. They had been called in to negotiate a deal, on her first day. The room was intimidating, to say the least, Liv staring daggers through the two- way mirror at the kid sitting in the room. Peter had filled her in on the drive over, the kid apparently attended a private school and raped a girl from a different school. It was disgusting, and despicable. The look on Liv’s face said it all as she listened to him and his lawyer, Buchanan talk over their options. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for Liv to notice the two of them, a soft smile spreading over her face as her eyes fell on Anissa. Liv greeted her, shaking her hand and offering a warm smile to the nervous, young attorney.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Anissa! Nick told me all about you!” Liv stepped away slightly, trying to give Anissa her space back. “All good things, of course. I’m sure Peter has explained everything to you?” She nodded, glancing into the interrogation room. That kid did not look one bit nervous, and it was bullshit. The only reason he was even taking a deal was because Buchanan was making him, and that was because of the race issue.

Anissa didn’t think that she would deal with it so bluntly on the first day of work, but she had known it was coming. Thank God Carmen was a Black woman like her, so she’d never be completely alone, but this was not going to be a fun case at all.

“Are you okay going in there by yourself, Anissa?” Peter’s voice pulled her away from her own thoughts, and she looked through the window at Buchanan and the kid. “Liv will be with you, but I can come too. Are you okay?”

Anissa nodded, determined to do her job to the best of her abilities, no matter what Buchanan or a rapist said to her. “Yeah. I’m okay.”

\------

“Absolutely not. My client has done nothing wrong!”

Anissa resisted the urge to roll her eyes, looking down at the pad of paper in front of her. “Mr. Buchanan, you specifically called us down here for a plea deal for your client, Mr. Turner.” She pushed the paper over to Buchanan. “You understand that, right?”

“No, we came down here to prove his innocence,” He spat back at Anissa, eyeing her curiously. “Now, I know that you’re new here but—

“But nothing,” Anissa cut him off, clicking her pen against the metal table and throwing it aside. “Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Turner, I would like to make it perfectly clear that I was under no obligation to come down here and offer you this generous plea deal—”

“Shut up! I didn’t rape that bitch, but I’ll rape you!” The kid yelled, standing up and lunging for Anissa, only to be held back by Buchanan and Liv. Anissa didn’t flinch or step back or even gasp when he went after her. She couldn’t, she couldn’t let herself show weakness to this kid or Buchanan. Or Liv. She had a job to do, she couldn’t afford the luxury of emotions.

She stood up, stepping away from the table before smoothing down the front of her suit jacket, calmly clasping the button shut. “I think we’re done here, counselor. See you in court.” And with that she left the interrogation room. When she finally made it to the hallway, she let out a shaky breath and leaned her head against the door. Not a great start.

“Nice suit,” Came a heavily accented-voice from behind her, she whipped around to see a much taller man standing before her, clad in a gray three-piece suit. “That color looks really good on you. You must be the new ADA, Ms. Rodriguez-Barba, right? I’m Dominick Carisi Jr. but please, call me Sonny.” The man held out his hand to shake hers, to which she did so, but hesitantly.

“Please, call me Anissa.”  She offered a soft smile to Sonny, shaking his hand firmly. “And, thank you, I was actually feeling very self-conscious this morning.” Anissa played with the edge of her suit jacket, before dropping it and flashing him another soft smile.

“Well, I don’t see why,” Sonny leaned against the hallway wall, his lips curling into a charming smirk as the edge of his eyes crinkled in joy. “It’s clear that yellow was made for you to wear.”

“Now you’re just flirting.” Anissa leaned back against the wall herself, folding her arms over her chest as Sonny shrugged, throwing a wink her way.

“Is it working?”

Anissa shrugged in return, standing up  and walking over to the entrance of the bullpen, “Stick around and find out.” She threw a wink back at him, walking out into the room. as Sonny followed behind her. “I guess we’re bringing this to court now…”

“Don’t worry, counselor. You got a solid case here, this should be a breeze for you and Stone.” Sonny led her over to his desk, sitting down in his chair. “Take a seat.”

She obliged, leaning back in the chair and stretching a little bit. “That’s the thing, Carisi, this is my first case as an attorney…what happens if we don’t win this? No one’s ever gonna trust me…”

He breathed in sharply, leaning forward and resting his chin on his fists. “You worried about your reputation?” Anissa nodded. “Don’t. You got nothing to worry about, no one is expecting you to knock it outta the park on your first try.”

“But I do!” She tucked a curl behind her ear. “We-We had nothing when I was a kid. My dad died before I was born, it was just my mom and I when I was young. She was an immigrant from DR and worked three jobs and put herself through college and med school. How do I live up to that? How do I make a name for myself like she did? How do I…How do I make her proud?” Anissa bit her lip before swallowing hard, her eyes landing on Carisi, who was gazing at her sympathetically. It had finally dawned on her that she had just spilled her entire heart out to a stranger she had just met.

Anissa laughed softly, looking down at her hands. “You make it very easy for someone to pour their hearts out to you, Detective.”

“Is that okay?” He asked softly, leaning forward in his desk chair and resting his arms on the desk. Carisi looked concerned, but made an effort to not get into her space. 

“Yeah, it’s okay.” It was more than okay, so much more than okay.


End file.
